Why the world needs India more than China

 

 

Photo by DEBRAJ  ROY: https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-walking-on-the-street-14687500/

India and China are two of the world's most ancient civilizations and have a lot in common in the sense that both nations have been in existence a lot longer than all European and most certainly North American ones. They may not have existed as modern nation-states like in the present times, but there certainly was a global recognition of India and China as two well-defined regions of the world since the times of the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians.

Photo by Markus Winkler: https://www.pexels.com/photo/the-forbidden-city-in-beijing-china-5102098/

Both nations made extraordinary discoveries and inventions that helped changed the shape of the world. India gave the world its numerals, the decimal system and the zero, whole China is credited with inventions like paper, gunpowder and the magnetic compass. Both nations suffered the consequences of colonial rule, though this was more direct in the case of India.

For much of their history, there was largely no conflict between the two nations. India was in many ways the spiritual godfather on account of Indian missionary monks introducing Buddhism to China, which quickly became one of its major religions. Buddhist monks, students and pilgrims had been coming to visit the holy Buddhist destinations as well as the great universities at Nalanda and Taxila down the centuries of the first millennium.

This association came to an end with the rise of Muslim power in India and the subsequent destruction and decay of many of the nation's premier ancient universities and monasteries. China and India hardly ever engaged again until after India became independent again when it came face to face with a communist and revisionist power whose ideology could not have been more different from its own. While India came to terms with its colonial past and made peace with it and adopted the best aspects of what its long encounter with the West taught it in the shape of the Westminster model of democracy, a finely developed judicial system, a well-functioning bureaucracy and widespread use of the English language, communist China seethed with indignation and resentment at its colonial past and determined to right historical wrongs, which put it on a confrontation path with almost all of its neighbours and the world beyond.

Its earlier economic policies were disastrous for its people causing famine, death and destruction on an unprecedented scale. It wasn't till it abandoned its command economy model in late 1978 and adopted Western-style capitalism albeit without the accompanying democratic form of government that it managed stupendous economic success that saw it outperform India for a few decades.

India delayed liberalizing its economy till the early 1990s which saw it fall way behind China in the economic race. However, things have come a full circle with the Chinese economy decelerating at a breakneck speed in the post-pandemic period with their supreme leader Xi Jinping reverting to the ways of the command economy even as the Chinese economy goes into a tailspin on account of its ageing population, all-round falling incomes and demand.

 India on the other hand is one of the fastest growing economies of the world with a much younger population all set to propel it to become a $5 trillion economy in the next few years. Besides, it is a vibrant and functioning democracy with a free and vocal press. It has more speakers of the English language than even the United Kingdom giving it a unique advantage over the inscrutable Chinese. India's foreign policy is rules-based and follows none of the wolf warrior diplomacy nonsense that China is known for. In a world fraught with danger where Russia is unravelling at a break-neck speed under its ageing dictator Putin and China facing an economic meltdown, India is a force for stability in the world. 

The US continues to be the sole superpower in the world and with China fast running out of steam, it is in the former's interest to support India via enhanced economic and defence ties, apart from the already strong cultural ties on account of the large Indian diaspora in that nation. The same is true of Europe, Australia, Japan, South East Asia and even the Middle East. Where does that leave China? Nowhere.